Digest of Public Opinion on Jewish Matters

October 26, 1926

[The purpose of the Digest is informative: Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does not indicate approval.-Editor.]

A statement regarding Dr. Joseph Rosen’s proposed mission to Palestine was issued by the United Jewish Campaign office and published in the “New Palestine” (October 22), official organ of the Zionist Organization of America. It is pointed out that the proposal at the recent Chicago Conference was not, as reported in the press, that Dr. Rosen shoud proceed to Palestine on his way to Russia for the purpose of studying colonization problems there, and to submit his recommendations to the Committee. The statement reads:

“The facts are as follows: Dr. Rosen expressed to Mr. Warburg a very keen desire to go to Palestine, not for the purpose of studying the problems and submitting a report to the Joint Distribution Committee, but for the purpose of ascertaining in what way he could be helpful to the Jewish agricultural population of Palestine in solving their problems, and he asked permission of the Joint Distribution Committee to go to Palestine before proceeding to Russia.

“Mr. Warburg announced to the conference Dr. Rosen’s request, and said: First, that this desire of Dr. Rosen’s met with his cordial approval, and second, that since Dr. Rosen is attached to the Joint Distribution Committee, his request would have to be put to the Executive Committee of that body; and third, that he (Mr. Warburg) had not the slightest doubt that the Executive Committee of the Joint Distribution Committee would grant Dr. Rosen the permission he desires.

“The whole point of the matter is that Dr. Rosen has for a long time been wanting to go to Palestine and to render whatever help lies in his power to put the agricultural colonies on a sound economic footing; to render such advice as is in his power as to proper methods of agriculture, planting, crop-rotation, etcetera, not as a representative of the J. D. C. but as a Jew keenly interested in the development of Palestine. This, he says, is of paramount importance to the Jewish people and must be viewed from that angle and that angle alone, and not by contrast or in comparison with colonization efforts in any other country, which, he says, are important to such Jews as may engage in these colonization efforts.

“Now, finally, because his work in Russia has made such satisfactory progress, he feels that he is in a position, without injury to his other work, to go to Palestine and offer it his services.”

WANTS GREAT LEADER TO HEAD MOVEMENT AGAINST RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY

America’s need today is for a great leader with a passion for freedom to head the movement against religious bigotry, declares Samuel McChord Crothers, one of the outstanding Unitarian clergymen in America and author of a number of books on socioreligious subjects.

Writing in the New York “World” of Sunday, Mr. Crothers says: “Just now we are awaiting the appearance of some one who … can repel the attacks of present-day bigotry. It would be heartening if such a person would come out of the ranks of the Catholic or the orthodox Protestant Church.

“The cause of liberty is in a bad way in this prosperous country of ours. Under the influence of a fear of revolutionary movements, people who ordinarily could be counted upon to think and act like good Americans have turned against the principle which we had supposed to be established-the complete separation of the functions of church and state.”

Referring to the Tennessee in its anti-evolution statute, Mr. Crothers continues:

“It is this plain principle of the separation of church and state that has been violated by the State of Tennessee in its anti-evolution statute. The example has been followed in other States. It has ceased to be a local issue and has become a matter that concerns all American citizens. Especially does it concern the great churches which will have to declare their position.

“The body that has most to lose by any weakening of the ideas of the framers of our Constitution is the Roman Catholic Church,” things Mr. Crothers. “The intelligent Catholic knows that what happened in Mexico is impossible in the United States. The Constitution that prevents the tyrannizing over the state, prevents the state from stifling the life of the church. Indeed, it must be remembered that the modern distinction between the state and church was formulated by the Jesuit teachers of the seventeenth century.

“As to the great Protestant denominations, all that is most stirring in their history is connected with their struggle for liberty. The Baptists remember John Bunyan choosing to remain year after year in Bedford Jail rather than allow the Civil Magistrate to dictate where he should go to church or what he should preach. The Presbyterian tells his children the story of the fight of Scottish Covenanters against Bishops and prayer books. The Methodist remembers how cheerfully John Wesley went about England defying mobs and overcoming them.

“As for the Jew, orthodox or liberal, all the high lights of his history are connected with the age-long resistance to the attempts to change his opinions by force.”